


a star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes

by eliestarr



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Cetra Byleth, Edeleth Week (Fire Emblem), F/F, SOLDIER Edelgard, final fantasy vii au, magic and technology fusion, no beta we die like men, so cyberpunk basically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:14:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26817187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eliestarr/pseuds/eliestarr
Summary: The softest laugh graces the air, a few lilting notes that are barely more than a fluttered breath, yet still music to her ears. “It’s alright. They’re a lot tougher than they look.”Teal waves dangle gently as she tilts her head, watching as Edelgard stoops to pick up Aymr from where it fell, thankfully outside the flower patch. It heavily cratered the wood, and she tries not to draw attention to it as she lifts the giant axe to her back, fastening it to the magnet on her back plate. When she glances up, there’s the ghost of delight dancing across Byleth’s eyes, and her tone is light. “Sort of like you.”After an explosion seemingly plunges Edelgard to her death, she awakes in a field of lilies, in the middle of a Church—with the most beautiful woman tending to her. Or, a final fantasy vii au no one asked for. || edeleth week, day 7: free day.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 6
Kudos: 66





	a star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes

**Author's Note:**

> this is incredibly self-indulgent no one look at me. un-beta'd, all mistakes are my own.
> 
> title from _cosmic love_ by florence + the machine.

The plan was supposed to be simple. 

Sneak into the Mako 5 Reactor facility, plant a bomb, then escape and regroup a few hours later at the _Crimson Flower_ bar knowing the Planet was a little safer. 

Straight-forward, really. Nearly the same formula as before, if perhaps against a little extra and expected security. They’d planned for nearly all outcomes, diversions and obstacles, and the briefing of the plan had been easy when the layout of the facility was exactly the same as their previous caper at the reactor in Sector 1.

Stupidly, they’d never once considered it might be a trap. That after a successful operation to blow the first reactor, _SEIROS_ would be waiting. 

Not until President Rhea’s pet beast comes lumbering towards them.

The Air Buster is a large, fearsome thing made of twisting metal, a glowing neon core, and high-powered concussion blasts. And it looks like a damn _dragon._

They put up one hell of a fight. Hubert depletes nearly all of the Materia in his cybernetic hand, Caspar's bleeding heavily from several open wounds but still looks ready to brawl his way to victory gauntlets blazing, and Bernadetta’s recurve bow has a nasty crack down the middle, the lights along it’s frame flickering wildly. 

(Linhardt was going to be furious about both of the latter if they made it back.)

Edelgard deals the final blow, swinging Aymr down in an arc that splits the beast in half.

The problem, of course, is that she's then closest when the thing’s failsafe kicks in upon demise. A shockwave explosion that crumples the catwalk stage they’d been fighting on, knocking everyone back—and sending Edelgard over the edge of it, to her untimely death.

(At least, that’s what she thinks.)

As she falls, her life flashes before her eyes. Blurry and unfocused images of a burning, searing childhood, a cold, sterile _nothingness_ beneath white ceilings and fluorescent lights, and then the warmth that had followed, finding a kinship, a family of sorts, in the Sector 7 slums to which she’d been dumped. People that, like her, had been ruined by the _SEIROS Corporation_. People who’d wanted to make a difference and keep others from their fate—who’d been the building blocks of the eco-terrorist group, the _BLACK EAGLES_. 

She wonders if they’ll mourn her.

* * *

It comes as a surprise when Edelgard wakes up again.

More surprising is the soft earth beneath her aching, bloodied fingers, and the sweet scent that tickles her nostrils. It takes her eyes a moment to adjust to the light—a moment more to realize it is real, true _sunlight_ she’s seeing—in order to bring into focus the white lilies growing in a sea around her. Vibrant green leaves and the smell of fresh, moist soil are a jarring experience that throws her off balance as she sits up, taking in her surroundings.

Or perhaps it’s the beautiful woman in the black dress, standing quietly at the fringes of the flower patch. She’s humming quietly to herself, tending to a basket of the lilies with delicate hands, teal hair falling in waves to her shoulders.

Edelgard’s movement seems to catch her eye as she sits up, and she looks over, the smallest hint of a smile turning her lips. “You’re awake.” She manages a slow nod, and the grin turns softer. “It’s nice to see you again.”

The words send the tiniest thrill of fight or flight along her spine, but Edelgard masks it with a frown. “Excuse me?”

“You don’t remember me?” She tilts her head, blue eyes clear and honest as they gaze down at her. “I suppose you _were_ in a bit of a hurry last we met.”

A hand extends between them, a lily held gently between pale, slim fingers.

In a flash, an image superimposed over the scene before her, Edelgard pictures the same woman under the street lamps of Sector 1, cobblestone path beneath their feet and old, rich buildings that were common above the plate. She’d been weaving blindly through the streets, trying to put distance between herself and the Mako Reactor they’d just infiltrated before it could blow, and she hadn’t really been looking where she’d been going.

 _Byleth_ , she’d said her name was, and Edelgard had thought it pretty. She’d given her a flower then, too. One of these white lilies. 

(Edelgard had put it in a little glass on the nightstand in her room, a small and delicate reminder of good things, mixed with the rare scent of natural life the slums sorely lacked when the reactors made it a barren and fruitless landscape.)

She feels her cheeks heat, embarrassed about the whole ordeal. 

“Of course,” she nods, accepting the new flower and twirling in between her own fingers. She’s careful with it as she stands, offering the woman a shy smile. “I remember now. My apologies.”

Truthfully, she can’t believe she’d forgotten such a pretty face, but it’s not like she had time for that sort of thing. She was trying to save the Planet, after all. 

“It’s alright,” Byleth says kindly. “You took a pretty nasty fall, enough to scramble anyone’s memory, I think.”

Slowly, hesitantly, Edelgard tears her gaze away and looks upwards. There, between cracked wooden beams and crumbled stone that shows its age, is a hole roughly twice her size. It’s exactly the hole through which sunlight—real, pure sunlight—filters, causing her to raise a hand against the warm, bright rays. Faintly, she can see the Mako Reactor and the plate far above, but the distance between them is daunting.

She shudders at the thought of falling that far and surviving relatively unscathed. 

(Perhaps the only good thing the _SEIROS Corporation_ has ever given her.)

“Are we in the slums?” Edelgard asks, looking out past the sea of flowers to the rest of the building she fell into. Wooden pews line both sides of the cavernous room, and huge stained glass windows climb towards the arched ceiling, painting the floor boards with glittering lights and patches of colour. “In a Church?”

“We are,” Byleth hums, folding her hands behind her back. “Sector 5.”

“Do you… live here?” She feels sort of strange, asking. But a cursory glance around the church has also gifted her with the image of a mattress tucked into one corner of the room, next to the piano where Byleth had been standing when she’d awoken. 

“Sometimes. Mostly I just tend to my flowers.”

Her lips part, and Edelgard glances down, as though suddenly remembering what she’d awoken in, what she’s now _standing_ in. One such lily is folded in half beneath her boot, and in a flash of rising panic and swirling embarrassment, Edelgard stumbles out of the flower patch, careful not to trample them any more than she has. “I’m so sorry. I-I didn’t mean to—”

The softest laugh graces the air, a few lilting notes that are barely more than a fluttered breath, yet still music to her ears. “It’s alright. They’re a lot tougher than they look.”

Teal waves dangle gently as she tilts her head, watching as Edelgard stoops to pick up Aymr from where it fell, thankfully outside the flower patch. It heavily cratered the wood, and she tries not to draw attention to it as she lifts the giant axe to her back, fastening it to the magnet on her back plate. When she glances up, there’s the ghost of delight dancing across Byleth’s eyes, and her tone is light. “Sort of like you.”

It brings a blush to Edelgard’s cheeks again. Enough that she has to look away, clearing her throat as though it will deflect scrutiny. Her eyes wander on an errant breeze, drifting a moment before coming to land on the basket of trimmed lilies Byleth had been tending to when she’d awoken. She takes in the full workstation now, from the scissors and ribbon on the piano bench, to the large, golden staff leaning against the instrument itself. The black leather jacket she’d been wearing the night they met hangs on a hook behind it.

Edelgard smiles. “And you as well, I think.”

“I’m not anything special,” Byleth hums, but there’s a nervous tremble to the way she tucks hair behind her ear and avoids Edelgard’s gaze. “It was a gift from my mother, before her passing. Father’s trained me with it, but I don’t think I’m terribly good.”

Edelgard opens her mouth to ask, curiosity pricking at her skin in an unfamiliar way, but the words don’t make it past her lips. The sound of boots thudding against wood interrupts, derailing her train of thought and pulling her attention towards the front of the church, instead.

Her blood runs cold at the sight.

There stands three security officers with stun batons, postures stiff and calculating. And at the helm of them is the most worrisome part—a tall woman in a finely pressed silver suit, a huge sword sheathed at her waist and long, blonde ponytail swinging at her back.

Edelgard recognizes her easily enough. Catherine; one of the highest ranking Knights, an elite task force that handles all of _SEIROS_ ’ problems. 

“There you are.”

Her breath catches in her throat, and she’s for a moment surprised that they tracked her down so quickly. She worries if the others have been found as well, or if they even made it out at all, before shaking the thought from her mind. She doesn’t have time for this, not when there’s a very pressing matter of the woman come to take her— 

There’s a gentle touch at her elbow, and slender fingers that wrap around hers. Edelgard stills, looking over her shoulder at Byleth to see her brows furrowed, her delicate face twisted with worry, a panic that’s ill-suited of her features. “You’re a mercenary, right?”

Edelgard winces, but nods. “Of sorts.”

She supposes it sounds better than _eco-terrorist_ , and carries less weight to it than _Ex-SOLDIER_ , certainly. 

Byleth’s eyes flicker past Edelgard, pupils dilated with fear, then find her again. Her warm hand squeezes Edelgard’s own. “Could I—would you be willing to let me hire you, as my bodyguard?”

Edelgard blinks, thinking she’s misheard. Slowly, her line of sight drags forward, assessing Catherine and her officers. They seem to be paying her very little attention, gazes brushing past and holding fast on the other woman, instead. 

_Oh_.

“I don’t have much money,” Byleth continues at her back, stepping close enough that her words caress Edelgard’s ear, ruffling her messy white locks. Most of it has tumbled out of the bun she’d arranged it in for the reactor mission. “But if you can get me home safely, how about a date?”

Edelgard nearly kinks her neck, the speed with which turns back towards Byleth. The woman’s smile is shy and uncertain, and she’s close enough that Edelgard can see hints of sky and ocean in the blue of her eyes, a swirl of hope glittering beneath the fear. It’s more than enough to convince her. She nods, carefully slipping her hand from Byleth’s to fasten the flower she’d given her earlier into her hairpiece, tightening her bun as she goes. Her fingers tighten around Aymr’s hilt, and she draws the behemoth axe from her back, swinging it into a forward stance. 

The pink and green Materia at the base of the curved blade gleam in the sunlight.

Twenty paces ahead, a feral smile stretches across Catherine’s lips, and she unsheathes her sword. It crackles to life, electric current humming between them. “This’ll be fun.”

“This’ll be _quick_.” Edelgard corrects, tone derisive, raising her chin to look down her long, pointed nose at the other woman. 

And then she launches herself forward, hunger for the fight singing in her very veins.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/_eliestarr)!
> 
> I had originally written up who was who in the au to put in the notes, because when I make an au I really live in it, but uh, it was incredibly long and embarrassing, so we'll skip that. Thank you for reading, and please let me know what you think!


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